


The Nature of Symbiosis

by wolfiefics



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Difference Of Opinion, Jedi June 2020, M/M, Nothing explicit, Qui-Gon is NOT fond of Obi-Wan's teacher in this subject, discussion regarding relationships and Jedi philosophy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 11:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24969304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics
Summary: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discuss the difference between symbiosis and co-dependency in regards to Jedi relationships.
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	The Nature of Symbiosis

They had been at the Temple for about two tens. Obi-Wan was desperately behind required coursework needed if he was ever going to make knighthood. Qui-Gon took the opportunity to make notes for a possible treatise he’d been thinking about on the nature of attachments and the Code. He was fairly sure it would brand him a heretic and give the High Council the hives, but Qui-Gon didn’t particularly care.

While Qui-Gon immersed himself in ancient tomes, sent communiques back and forth between his contacts in other Jedi sects or Force using communities, and meditated on his thoughts, Obi-Wan was mired in theorems, stratagems, political debates, and, oddly, advanced katas. The last was odd because Qui-Gon knew for a fact that Obi-Wan could do the advanced katas in his sleep because Qui-Gon had been drilling the twenty-two-year-old in them for at least a year now.

Qui-Gon was making a cup of tea after a long meditation when Obi-Wan came into their quarters, giving off a disturbed air that had Qui-Gon quirking an eyebrow up. Obi-Wan was not easily ruffled, a steady young man, a bit fanatical in following the Code, and not prone to emotional upsets often.

Obi-Wan collapsed onto their couch and was, in a word, brooding. Those beautiful changeling blue-green eyes were faraway in thought and his expressive lips were pressed together in a tight seam. Qui-Gon wisped out a tendril along their bond to gauge his apprentice’s mood and was surprised that Obi-Wan was roiling with doubt, worry, and a little bit of fear.

Qui-Gon made a second cup of tea and then took them both to the couch, setting them on the little table, before settling himself next to his apprentice. He sipped and waited for Obi-Wan to surface from wherever his mind had gone.

Obi-Wan slid back into awareness a few moments later, glanced at his master with an expression that Qui-Gon could only classify as shame, picked up his cup and sipped as well.

“What troubles you, Padawan?” Qui-Gon asked curiously.

Obi-Wan went to shake his head but stopped himself, slanting another glance at Qui-Gon. The Jedi Master kept his features open and non-judgmental. Something was eating at Obi-Wan and it was likely going to take a bit of coaxing to get it out.

Or not. “Master, do you think we have a symbiotic relationship or a co-dependent one?” Obi-Wan blurted, casting his gaze away from Qui-Gon as he spoke. Another twinge of worry and shame trickled along their bond.

“Why would you ask that?” Qui-Gon inquired, tipping his head to one side, which caused his long hair to slither over his shoulder.

Obi-Wan shrugged, trying to casual and missing by a parsec.

“Why would you think we are dependent?” Qui-Gon pushed, honing in on that point, sensing that was the crux of whatever problem Obi-Wan was working out in his head.

“Master O’Pla said the nature of a master and apprentice relationship is, by necessity, co-dependent. That the reason newly made knights are separated from their former masters is to teach the knight independence.”

Qui-Gon frowned a moment. “He didn’t happen to mention the cases where those same pairs, after the padawan attains knighthood, continue as a working pair, did he?”

Obi-Wan swallowed and shifted in his seat in what was an obvious, un-Obi-Wan-like fidget. “Master O’Pla said such teams are unnatural. Jedi are to work alone unless they have an apprentice. The Force makes sure a solitary Jedi is not left feeling lonely. A Jedi needs only the Force and none other. A Jedi who insists on a partner has not been properly trained or is deficient and should never have been made a Jedi in the first place.”

Qui-Gon pinched his nose right at the bump from a break he’d sustained as an impetuous padawan under the impression he was more immortal than he really was. He detested masters like O’Pla. Why in Sith Hells anyone put them in charge of teaching initiates and padawans anything was beyond Qui-Gon’s comprehension. They were fanatics and better served being hermits in a cave in the wilderness, being prophets and martyrs rather than attempting to teach impressionable minds about the ways of the universe.

“Obi-Wan,” he began but was interrupted.

“Qui-Gon, I don’t want to be a burden and I don’t want you to burden me!” Obi-Wan stood up and began to pace in agitation. “Everyone knows we are together, that we have bonded. It is no secret we have no intention of stopping our partnership once I am knighted. But if Master O’Pla is right, then we are defying the Force’s will for us and –“

Qui-Gon grabbed an arm as it swung by and pulled Obi-Wan down onto his lap. “We are not co-dependent on each other, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon assured him. “Have you, a young man who has studied the Code and all its aspects and arguments so diligently ever sensed there is anything wrong with our bond? Does the Force tell you it is against its will, an abomination?”

Obi-Wan frowned slightly. “Well, no-“ he started to concede but Qui-Gon interrupted him.

“Master O’Pla is, loosely, a stoic,” Qui-Gon said. “He believes that every thought he has is the will of the Force as dictated by nature and therefore must be correct and the only true path. A difference of opinion is heresy, to him. In less enlightened times, he probably would be the one burning heretics. Master O’Pla, I might add, has never had a padawan and was known as a young knight to throwing fits when he was asked to take one.” Qui-Gon gave a small smile to his gaping apprentice. “If you want the majority opinion of the Order regarding Master O’Pla, _he’s_ the bad example of a Jedi. He has no compassion, he has no means of compromise within himself, and if he could, he would force conformity of his opinions on everyone else, regardless of those people’s own opinions and beliefs because he is convinced that he alone is graced with great wisdom.”

Obi-Wan blew out a breath. “So you think we are more symbiotic in our relationship?”

Qui-Gon thought a moment. “In many ways, yes.” He pecked a kiss on Obi-Wan’s nose because he couldn’t help himself. “Despite our rather difficult beginning, we became strong as a working partnership. We learned, and still learn, equally from each other in many aspects of our professional and personal lives. Our differences compliment our strengths. Though we exasperate each other, we understand where the other stands and support each other, as is right. Your belief in the Unifying Force, with your focus on the future, and my strength in the Living Force and thus living in the moment, gives us an advantage in almost every situation, Obi-Wan. We are two examples of the Force in all its facets, working in harmony. How can that not be symbiotic?”

Obi-Wan thought about that a moment, his finger tracing random patterns on Qui-Gon’s knee. “How does this explain our romantical relationship?”

Qui-Gon chuckled and hugged Obi-Wan tight to him. “It is love, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan frowned. “Well, yes, but it is also attachment.”

“Is it?”

Here Obi-Wan looked uncertain. “Um, yes?” he answered uncertainly.

“Are we so obsessed with one another that we cannot function, cannot think, cannot make a decision without the other taken into consideration?”

“No.”

“Do we allow our affections for each other override common sense and our duty as Jedi?”

Here Obi-Wan hesitated a moment. “Not yet,” the younger man hedged.

Qui-Gon allowed it, for now. “Have you lain in bed with me and wondered what you would do if I were lost to you, at least physically?”

Obi-Wan shivered. “Yes,” he whispered.

“And what did your heart tell you?” Qui-Gon whispered back.

“That it would hurt, that the grief would be great, but that I would go on, that I would live, knowing you waited for me in the Force when I passed to it as well,” Obi-Wan confessed in a low tone.

Qui-Gon hugged him again. “And that is what my heart, and the Force, tells me when I wonder the same.”

“So we are symbiotic, complimenting each other, fitting like two parts machined to do so, but we are not co-dependent because we know we can live without the other should that need come to pass,” Obi-Wan concluded solemnly.

Qui-Gon brushed a kiss on Obi-Wan’s cheek. “Yes, my love, that is exactly so.”

“Master O’Pla is a farking idiot,” Obi-Wan announced with a bit of heat.

Qui-Gon laughed and pushed Obi-Wan off his lap. “I’ve always thought so, but let's keep that opinion between you and me,” he agreed. “He is a revered master. And I thank you, my Obi-Wan.”

Those curiously colored eyes turned to him. “For what?”

“You’ve given me the argument on my next treatise on the Code’s meanings on attachment.”

Obi-Wan made a face. “Please don’t do anything that will give the High Council heart attacks.”

“I will do what I must,” Qui-Gon intoned in his most insufferable Jedi Master tone. He got a dirty look that made him grin unrepentantly.

“Do I have to finish Master O’Pla’s class?” Obi-Wan entreated.

“I suggest you nap through it,” Qui-Gon told him. “That’s what I did.”

“But I’ll fail!” Obi-Wan protested.

Qui-Gon quirked an eyebrow. “With a closed mind like Master O’Pla do you really think anyone passes his class?”

Obi-Wan considered that. “I’ll just skip it then. I’ve got better things to do.”

Qui-Gon grinned. “Even better,” he agreed and then added slyly, “Especially if the better things to do include me, a bed, and a bit of lube?”

Obi-Wan smirked and headed for their now shared bedchamber. “Maaaybe,” he singsonged. “Come and find out.”

Qui-Gon did. He needed to reinforce that they were symbiotic in more physical ways as well, after all.

fin

**Author's Note:**

> I have mixed feelings about the Jedi Code and tend toward Qui-Gon’s approach on things: it’s the will of the Force, leave it alone. I do not, however, have patience with anyone who is ‘my way, my thoughts, my opinions, or you are a bad person’ attitude. The Jedi Order as a unit is, of course, not that way. They have varying opinions, ideas, theories, ways of interpreting the Force, and even training the next generation that are, and have been, valid for thousands of years. Like all philosophies, though, some go out of vogue, are found to be just a bit extreme and not really good for the mind and sometimes the body, and are replaced with philosophies a little less hard on everyone. That’s where I like to think the Jedi Order is around the time of the prequels. They’ve hit a happy medium on thoughts, might get a little twitchy about some things but for the most part are ‘live and let live’ kind of people. They are happy with what they’ve achieved and have gotten, perhaps, a bit too complacent (otherwise the Sith probably wouldn’t have blindsided them like Palpatine did). However, there’s always someone, in every culture, religions, belief system, and community who’s under the impression they are the be all and end all of the universe. That half-eaten bug in the fruit that makes you a bit queasy with the thought “did I eat that?” I’m not attacking anyone specifically (and the Jedi in question who’s a bit of a fanatic is made up anyway) but I want to show that there’s nothing wrong about relationships among the Jedi as long as they are not fixated and unhealthy. Hopefully, this will still qualify for the Jedi June prompt and guidelines. (shrug)


End file.
